The Eclipse
by AlchemicBankai
Summary: Of course anyone would want to go to the world of dueling, but not because of their loved ones being kidnapped. But how else does Goodwin know how to invite people?
1. Chapter 1

The Eclipse

Chapter 1

Table after table lined up with numbers placed on them; duelists ranging in ages anywhere from 5 to 50 or older; cards being played, traded, and sold; every thirty minutes someone has lost their deck box. These are the common things found at any Yu-Gi-Oh! Regional Qualifier tournament. It was the first step towards being accepted in to the national tournament and finally the world championships. However for many people who don't have the cash to spend on the rarest of cards, or don't have the luck to pull them from packs, they never get past this stage out of inability to out play those that do.

A black haired boy in glasses was one such person, currently attending one of these events. Although he knew his chances of victory were slim at best, he still played out of his simple enjoyment of the game. "I'll stack a card to summon Plaguespreader, remove Malicious to summon Malicious, synch into Stardust, play Burial from the Different Dimension, two DADs for game?" asked his opponent, one of those who could manage to get the cards they wanted.

"Yeah," the boy responded as he picked up his cards and began shuffling them. _'Geez, Lightsworns here, Glad Beasts there, Tele-DAD everywhere, lack of originality is a sad thing indeed,'_ he thought to himself. He cut decks with his opponent and drew his six cards for his turn. "I set one monster and one card face down, your turn." As his opponent began his turn, he looked up due to something or someone rather, catching his attention. He saw two bizarrely dressed people checking the pairings charts that showed where everyone was to be seated and who their opponent was for that round. One was a short, blue haired man with face paint that gave him the appearance of a clown, while the other was much taller with brown hair shaped like a large axe blade. _'I had no idea Jeager and momentum dude had fans __**that**__ dedicated.'_

"Game?"

"Huh?" responded the boy, returning his attention to the duel.

"Two DADs and two Stardusts for game?"

The boy checked his opponent's cards and couldn't believe the "luck" needed to pull such a hand. "Yeah, good game," he said shaking hands with his opponent. Both signed the match paper and the victor took off towards the judges' table.

As the boy got up to look around until the next round, he was addressed by someone behind him. "Excuse me; you are Zack Feral, correct?" He turned around to find the two he had written off as mere cosplayers before. With a closer look, he could now see that were he shown a picture of their anime counterparts, he may not be able to tell the difference.

"Yes," he responded.

The clown-elf chuckled to himself exactly as Zack had seen him do in the anime. "My name is Jeager and his is Akutsu," he said referring to his taller colleague. "Would you be so kind as to step outside with us?"

"Yes, of course those are your names," Zack said sarcastically. "Sorry, but my parents taught me never to leave with strange people, y'know?"

"Do you refer to these people here?" "Jeager" asked, handing the teen a photo. He looked at it and realization of what was happening struck when he saw that it was of his parents and younger brother.

"You bastard," he said, wondering why someone would go so far to mimic this character.

"Now do please come with us, we wouldn't want anything…unfortunate to happen," the man threatened and laughed in his disturbing way. The two "cosplayers" led Zack out of the building and into a nearby ally. The scientist got out a machine of sorts and began activating it while speaking excitedly in Japanese and letting out seemingly random shouts of "Moooooomentum!" He aimed it at a wall and created a large vortex of energy which only seemed to surprise Zack. "After you," Jeager said motioning for the boy to enter.

Unsure of how safe this was, Zack slowly put his left arm in to test it. Finding nothing wrong when he pulled it back out, he stepped through. There was no flash, no sci-fi drug trip of colors. It was just like stepping through a doorway, into the center of a lab, with a bunch of gaping scientists, all staring directly at you.

"What did you expect?" said Jeager's ever annoying voice. "Interdimensional travel isn't your everyday occurrence." Zack turned to see that the clown had made it through with Akutsu following after. Once they had all stepped away from the portal, the machine sustaining it went haywire and began emitting smoke. This in turn made all of the scientists panic, including Akutsu. "We'll just leave them to this," Jeager said as he and Zack left into an elevator.

After arriving on the ground floor, they began walking to the regular elevator. Zack looked around and saw that aside from the occasional number, everything was in Japanese. _'Of course, the anti-thesis to any American fan coming to this world. I won't understand anything will I? Except clowny here, which I guess makes sense, even though he and the rest of this world shouldn't exist in the first place.'_ After another couple minutes of traversing the building, they reached a door on one of the highest floors and entered.

"Here he is," Jeager announced to a man facing away from them behind a large desk. The man turned and Zack immediately recognized him as, as far as he knew, the root of all evil.

"Welcome, I am Rex Goodwin, Director of the Neo-Domino City Public Security Maintenance Bureau. You must be Zack Feral," he said. He held out his hand, but the boy refused to shake it.

"Tell me why I'm here!" he demanded.

"You are familiar with Duel Monsters, correct? In a few days, I will be hosting a tournament called the Fortune Cup. All I require is that you compete, and then you and your family will be sent home."

"My family's here?!" Zack exclaimed. "Let me see them!"

"I'm afraid I cannot allow that at the moment."

"Then why me damnit? There are plenty of other people better than I am."

"You're not in the position to make demanding questions," Jeager spoke up, chuckling.

"Quite. Now, do we have a deal?" Goodwin asked.

Zack had to fight back some words he'd rather say, but he reluctantly nodded, knowing he didn't have any other real choices. _'At least the duels shouldn't be that hard,'_ he thought._'No anime deck can beat a real-'_ He checked his deck box only to find that a single card remained inside. "What the hell?!"

"Is something wrong?" Goodwin asked calmly while Zack proceeded to check every pocket he had.

"Besides the obvious," he said looking to the man darkly. "My cards are gone."

"That is unfortunate. You'll have to come up with a new deck. Jeager shall accompany you to a card shop," the director said while sitting back down in his desk.

"I'm getting a whole couple days to get used to a new deck?"

"That is not my concern," stated Goodwin as he began to use his computer built directly into his desk. "Now, Jeager will show you to your room then take you to get your cards."

-

They took a security car to get to the nearest card shop. Jeager went on and on about facts of Neo-Domino City and Security, most of which Zack already knew from the show or simply didn't care about. They arrived at a large card shop, which surprised Zack before remembering how much more of an impact the game had in this world. As none of the cards were in English, Jeager had to help translate all cards Zack didn't recognize. He found that many specific cards, like the Destiny Heroes, weren't available due to them having only been printed once, for their original owners. Since all cards were being paid for by Security he had all cards there available, but individually good cards were hard to find.

"Finally," Zack said as they exited the card shop. He looked through his new decks, one for ground duels, and one for riding duels. _'These aren't nearly good enough to do well back home, but they should do okay here. At least the duels won't go Stardust, DAD, DAD, game.'_As they returned to the car, he saw two kids dueling across the road. "So, will we have to buy me a duel disk too?"

"You will be provided a Security duel disk and a Security D-Wheel as well," Jeager replied.

"Great," Zack responded sarcastically. "Is there anywhere I can at least practice to get used to these decks?"

"The near-by Daimon area is notorious for street dueling. It should suffice for your practice."

It was only a short distance from the shop to find the place. It was an open lot between buildings with chalk-drawn duel fields. Crowds gathered around the duels, cheering for who they wanted to come out victorious.

"Wow, the real Daimon area," Zack said to himself as he went into his fan-boy mode. "This is awesome!" He ran up to a crowd once Jeager handed him a duel disk and stared wondrously at the duelists and their monsters. Although he knew what world he was in, the idea of being able to duel with the hologram projections had not yet sunk in until that moment. The duel finished soon after and Zack tried to run up to the loser's side before he was shoved out of the way by a much larger man who shouted something at him.

"It would appear that newcomers have to wait before they are allowed to duel," Jeager translated.

"How long?"

"He didn't say." They waited duel after duel but the "line" never seemed to get shorter. Zack could even swear he saw the same person go more than once. "It would appear that they have no intention of letting you duel. Perhaps we should-"

The clown was interrupted by the ground shaking violently and people fleeing the area in a hurry. Zack looked over to see an explosion and one person fly back onto the ground. The smoke cleared and revealed a person in a black cloak with a mask and long violet bangs hanging from behind it.

"So, the rumored Black Rose Witch appears," Jeager said as more people ran screaming from the area. Zack however had the opposite reaction, and ran towards the witch, his fan-boying blocking out how dangerous approaching that person actually was.

'_Oh my god, it's freakin' Aki!'_ he thought as he stood before her. He slipped the duel disk on his arm and inserted his deck. The device activated and shuffled his cards automatically. The witch nodded, accepting his challenge and activated her own disk.

"Duel!" both duelist said.

"I'll start!" Zack said drawing his cards.

Turn 1: Zack: 4000 Witch: 4000

He placed a card on his disk. "I summon Herald of Creation!" A barefooted woman in a white robe with a golden staff appeared (1800 ATK). "I also play Foolish Burial to send Treeborn Frog from my deck to my graveyard," Zack said showing the cards to his opponent. "I'll end my turn."

Understanding the words "end" and "turn", the witch drew.

Turn 2: Zack: 4000 Witch: 4000

She announced her move, in Japanese of course, and summoned a small silver haired boy in black armor.

"She summoned-"

"I know what it is," Zack said cutting off Jeager. "I don't need help in my duels at least."

The witch continued her turn by summoning another monster, this time what appeared to be a ghost covered in vines. The boy then turned into three green rings and surrounded the plant-ghost which turned into four stars. As the witch began chanting, the stars lined up and in a flash of light appeared an enormous black dragon covered in rose petals (2400 ATK). "Black Rose Dragon!" the witch announced. Vines spread out from the monster and smashed the ground around it.

"Woah," Zack said to himself, "she really can make her cards real. Dear god, as if the holograms weren't amazing enough!" All remaining people looked at him not in the least bit understanding his joy at what was terrifying the rest of them.

The witch pointed at Zack's monster and commanded her dragon to attack. It drew back and released a stream of purple flame on Herald of Creation, which let out a cry and exploded as all destroyed monsters do. The force hit Zack and he could feel the heat from the fire as his life points were burned away by 600 points, somewhat knocking him back down to reality. "Turn end."

"Ow," Zack said. "I didn't even get hit directly and I felt that. Like when you open an oven as soon as something's done baking. But still, I'm having the time of my life! Draw!"

Turn 3: Zack: 3400 Witch: 4000

A card slid out of Zack's graveyard and he put it on his disk. "During my stand-by phase when I have no spell or trap cards on the field, I can summon Treeborn Frog from my graveyard!" A small frog with wings appeared in front of its duelist (100 DEF). "Now I'll play the spell Instant Fusion! By paying 1000 life points, I can summon a level five or lower fusion monster from my extra deck. So I summon Musician King!" A large cup of instant noodles appeared on the field and a broom-haired man with a red guitar jumped out (1750 ATK). "Now, I'll tribute my two monsters on the field. You have your dragon, and here's mine, my only card to come with me to this world, Light and Darkness Dragon!" The two monsters on Zack's field disappeared and were replaced by a dragon just as large as the one on the opposite side of the field, with its right side white with an angelic wing, and the left black with a demonic wing (2800 ATK).

Upon seeing each other, the two dragons began to roar uncontrollably. Their owners only had a second to be shocked as a searing pain carved into both of their right arms. "What the," Zack let out as he looked down at his arm. On it was a glowing red mark with a design like the sun. "What the hell?!"

"You," the witch exclaimed looking at her opponent. "Another wretched mark?!" She quickly smacked another card into her disk and caused wind to kick up a lot of dust. When it cleared, she was gone, and Zack's mark stopped glowing, but remained present on his arm.

He stared at the spot the witch had been for a few seconds and put his cards away. Turning around, he walked over to Jeager and picked him up by the collar of his shirt. "Take me to Goodwin."

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Well, if you've read this far down, I suppose the first thing to do is to say thank you. This is my first 5d's fic, as well as my first Yu-Gi-Oh! fic at all. Unfortunately I'm only able to come up with OC or crossover fics, as I find I make characters way to OOC if I don't. Just a couple notes:

First of all, for the record, Zack has only seen the anime up to episode 35, which is when I came up with the ideas for this fic. At the time I was worried that I would go too far ahead and have to wait for the anime to move slowly forward every week. So the solution was easy and here I am posting it today. Also, Goodwin and the rest of the inhabitants of that world are unaware of the tv show.

Second, I'm keeping the characters' original names, but using the English version of the card names.

Now that that's taken care of, please review, even if you don't like it. I should have the 2nd Chapter up within a few days.


	2. Chapter 2

The Eclipse

Chapter 2

At the sound of his office door opening, Rex Goodwin looked up to see an obviously angry person glaring at him from across his desk. "Back so soon?" asked the Security director calmly.

"Yeah, and with questions that you'd better answer this time!" Zack said threateningly, even knowing that, given who he was speaking to, he couldn't really back it up. "For example: What the heck is this?!" He held up his right arm which still bore the sun mark that had appeared during his duel with the Black Rose Witch.

Goodwin stared for a second before standing up. "So, it has already appeared? Then I should explain a few things, come." He led the boy through the building to the entrance where they got into the director's private car.

"Can't you just tell me about the mark now?" Zack asked impatiently.

"If you wait, all will be explained soon enough."

The car arrived at a large mansion that was a good distance from the rest of the city. In the mansion they came to an elevator that descended as soon as Goodwin used an eye-scanner next to the doors. Finally, they reached a hallway with an ancient design lit by torches rather than electricity.

"Thousands of years ago," the director began suddenly; "there existed a civilization known as the people of the stars. They worshipped a red 'Dragon Star'."

'_Here we go,'_Zack thought as they reached the end of the hall and passed through a stone gate. On the other side was a large stone structure surrounded by a red glowing mark on the ground around it. Though having already seen it during Jack Atlas' similar encounter on the anime, he was still just as amazed by the real thing.

"Through the ruler, the Star Dragon King, the Dragon Star instructed the people of the stars on how to build their civilization. However, malevolent forces threatened the peace, and the king prayed for help." As Goodwin spoke, the room changed to show the flashbacks of the things he said. "The Dragon Star responded, and its embodiment, the Crimson Dragon, appeared. Using its powers, it sealed the evil in the earth, forming what are now called the Nazca Lines. However, their influence has spread, causing wars, poverty, and other things you see in the world today. Now the evil gods are being resurrected and I and the group known as 'Yliaster' must find the five people called 'Signers' that can summon the Crimson Dragon. They each have a mark of the dragon, and-."

"I'm not one of them though, so what does this have to do with me?" Zack interrupted.

"How did you guess?" Goodwin responded.

"I, uh…" the boy let out, realizing his mistake. In truth, he knew all five marks from the show, and that his sun wasn't one of them. But as far as he knew, Goodwin was unaware of the anime. "I saw the dragon sign on the altar-thing, and it didn't look like my mark."

"Hm," the director sounded, seemingly satisfied with the answer. "Well, sometime after the Crimson Dragon sealed the evil, a man tried to get powers similar to that of a signer. This infuriated the Dragon Star, which exiled him to another dimension, yours as it would seem."

"So, what, I'm his…descendent?" Zack guessed as he began to think about this new realization.

"Yes. As this man tried to get his powers through the sun and the moon, he was known as the 'Eclipse'. Little about him is actually known other than that he gained the power to understand and be understood by all languages, I've been speaking to you in Japanese this entire time, and that his mark did in fact resonate with those of the signers. You must have been near one for your mark to have appeared."

"Yeah, I was dueling one actually, and I did understand what she said once our marks appeared."

"You dueled a signer? Who was it?" Goodwin asked, startled to find that his plan had begun to work so quickly.

'_I guess she'll be at the Fortune Cup regardless,'_ thought Zack. "The Black Rose Witch."

"I see, that confirms two signers, well done. That is the reason I brought you here. The Fortune Cup is being held so that I may gather those I believe to be signers. With your powers as the Eclipse, you can reveal to me the remaining signers. Now, let us return to the Security building," the director said as the surroundings turned back to normal, or at least as normal as a giant underground stone structure can be, and he began to head towards the elevator.

"Hold on," Zack said stopping Goodwin. "It's good to know all that, but now that I know what you need me for, I want to see my family."

"Fine," Goodwin agreed. He pulled a rod from out of his jacket and it projected a screen. He handed the device over to Zack who looked and saw a camera view of his family in what looked like a hotel room. His father was banging on the door to no avail while his mother was sitting with his younger brother.

"Where is this?" Zack asked trying to sneak an answer from the man. It didn't work.

"If I told you, you'd go right there. I can only guarantee that they will be returned to your dimension after your participation in the Fortune Cup."

"Fine," Zack said, not seeing any other options. They returned to the security building where Zack went to his room in order to go over his new decks until he was used to them.

* * *

The next day, Zack found himself sitting bored in his assigned room. _'I've already looked over my decks a dozen times and I should be fine with them now, but now I've got nothing to do. I know that with my parents being locked up by Goodwin, I should be a little more worried than bored, but I can't help it. I'd try to find Jack to challenge, but if I remember correctly, he doesn't want to duel anyone else but Yusei.'_ He looked at his sun mark. _'Not that this doesn't mess up stuff already. God knows how the tournament will go. Which now that I think of it, using Security stuff is gonna suck…that's it!'_

Zack hurried to the computer that was provided him with his new idea. He began mumbling his thoughts, a habit of his when excited. "Search duel disks…original model…stores selling…Kurumizawa…search D-Wheels sellers…map of Neo-Domino…done!" He printed his locations and left his room after grabbing his decks. As he went through the halls to the exit, he couldn't help but wonder if someone would stop him, but no one came and he left unnoticed.

He entered the first store, Kurumizawa, to find it covered in models, figures, and posters all of Dark Magician Girl. _'And I thought I'd met some dedicated people, but this is insane.'_

"May I help you?" asked the store owner. He was a large man with small sunglasses and stared at his computer screen while he spoke.

"Yeah, I read online that you had the original Battle-City duel disk model here?" Zack inquired.

"Ah yes, one moment," the man responded, disappearing to the back of the store for a few seconds before coming back with said item. "I got this originally because the great duelist Yugi Moto used one, but as I don't duel myself, it doesn't hold a lot of value to me, or to anyone else apparently. Most of them are in the Satellite now if I remember correctly." He rang it up and Zack slid a card through the register and punched in some numbers. The man looked at his screen shocked. "The Public Security Maintenance Bureau?"

"Huh, oh yeah, they're hiring pretty young these days aren't they?" Zack lied as he grabbed his duel disk and headed for the exit. As the door opened, he bumped into a girl with long black hair and large, round glasses. He stared at her until she spoke up.

"Hello? Are you okay?"

"Oh," Zack said snapping out of it. "Uh, sorry," he quickly left apologizing. _'The reporter girl?'_ Deciding it didn't matter much if he was seeing things or not, he headed for his next destination.

* * *

After about an hour, Zack left another store. However this time, rather than on foot, he was on a new D-Wheel. It was black and reminiscent of a Harley Davidson motorcycle. _'I know this is way too cool for me, but it's not my money so I won't pass this up.'_ His helmet was also black with a white stripe on it. As he rode around enjoying the feel of the wind, another D-Wheel pulled up along side of him. Its design was that of a chopper while the ride wore a leather jacket and pants and a helmet with a skull on it.

"Hey," the man said keeping his eyes on the road; "nice ride."

"Thanks, looks like we have similar tastes, huh?" Zack responded, already seeing where this conversation was going.

"Haha, no kidding. How 'bout a riding duel? I know a road ahead that nobody uses," he challenged, reving up his D-Wheel.

"Sure thing," Zack replied. He followed the man to a curved road that ran around a couple blocks of abandoned buildings.

"The name's Mukuro Enjo by the way, former King of Riding Duels," he claimed proudly.

"Zack Feral, I'll be in the Fortune Cup in a couple days."

"Really now," Mukuro said as they pulled up to the make-shift starting line. "What a coincidence, I'll be there too."

Zack laughed to himself, knowing about the man's planned entrance. "Looking forward to it, but enough talk." He pressed a button on his D-Wheel and the screen lit up to display a card field with the monotonous voice, _"Duel-Mode. Auto-Pilot, stand-by."_

"Let's get started then," Mukuro responded. He copied Zack's action, preparing his D-Wheel. A glow enveloped the area to represent Speed World activating. "Riding Duel,"

"Acceleration!" both duelists shouted as they took off.

Turn 1

"I'll start!" Mukuro said drawing his card and placing it in his holder.

Zack: 4000 SPC: 0 Mukuro: 4000 SPC: 0

He grabbed another card and put it in his graveyard slot. "I activate the effect of the Skull Conductor in my hand. By sending it to the graveyard, I can summon up to two Zombies from my hand with a total ATK of 2000. So I summon two Burning Skull Heads!" He placed the cards onto his D-Wheel and two flaming skulls appeared on either side of him (1000 ATK). "Now their effects activate, when they're special summoned from my hand, they deal 1000 points of damage each!" The two skull heads turned towards Zack and blasted flames at him. Remembering the flames of Black Rose Dragon the day before, he braced himself but was relieved when the flames passed through as only holograms. "If that scared ya, you ain't seen nothin' yet! This deck'll get back my title as King! Now I'll set two face-down cards and end my turn." Two face-downs briefly appeared next to Mukuro before vanishing.

Turn 2

"Nice moves, but now it's my turn. Draw!"

Zack: 2000 SPC: 1 Mukuro: 4000 SPC: 1

I summon Chaos End Master in Attack Mode!" A man completely dressed in white with angel wings appeared (1500 ATK). "Attack a Burning Skull Head!" The monster began to fly over to one of the skulls when a card revealed itself next to Mukuro.

"Trap activate, Zero Guard! When you attack a monster, I can make it unable to be destroyed in battle by dropping its ATK to 0." The angel drew back its fist and punched, but the skull didn't budge. Mukuro flipped over his second face-down. "Another trap, Des Accelerator! When I take battle damage, I don't lose Speed Counters, and gain one for every 500 points I lost. You did 1500 damage, so I go up to four Speed Counters!" As Mukuro's life points dropped, his Speed Counters increased as did the speed of his D-Wheel.

"Well that went well," Zack said sarcastically. "I'll set two face-downs and end my turn."

Turn 3

"Draw!"

Zack: 2000 SPC: 2 Mukuro: 2500 SPC: 5

Mukuro looked at his new card and laughed. "Haha, yes! The next part's already here! I sacrifice my Burning Skull Heads to summon Skull Flame!" The two skulls disappeared and were replaced by a man in torn robes decorated with large bones (2600 ATK). "Skull Flame, attack his Chaos End Master!" The monster raised its arms and shot flames towards the angel.

"Activate Waboku!" Zack declared revealing his trap. "This turn, my monsters aren't destroyed by battle and I take no battle damage." The angel stood strong as the flames passed harmlessly by.

"Okay then, I set one face-down. Turn end."

Turn 4

"My turn, draw!"

Zack: 2000 SPC: 3 Mukuro: 2500 SPC: 6

"I tribute my Chaos End Master to summon Prime Material Dragon to the field!" The angel disappeared from the field to make way for a dragon that appeared to be carved from gold (2400 ATK).

"Ha, what a waste, my Skull Flame's still stronger!" Mukuro taunted.

"That's what this is for. Activate Miniaturize!" Zack's remaining face-down revealed itself. "Now one monster on the field loses 1000 ATK points, and I choose Skull Flame!"

"What?!" Mukuro exclaimed as his monster shrank and lost ATK points (1600 ATK).

"Now, Prime Material Dragon attacks!" The dragon jumped into the air with the intent to crush Skull Flame.

"Trap activate, Speed Booster! If I have more Speed Counters, I can negate one attack per turn!" Two boosters appeared on the back of Mukuro's D-Wheel, propelling him forward and taking his monster out of the dragon's way. "That was a close one!"

"Darn, then during my second main phase I activate Speed Spell – Speed Jammer! By dropping two of my Speed Counters, you lose six of yours!" Mukuro's boosters shut off and he fell behind Zack. "I'll set 1 face-down and end."

Turn 5

"During my draw phase, with Skull Flame I can get back one Burning Skull Head instead of drawing, so I will!" The card slid out of the graveyard slot and Mukuro added it to his hand.

Zack: 2000 SPC: 2 Mukuro: 2500 SPC: 1

"You know," Zack began before Mukuro could make a move, "with Prime Material Dragon on my field, all effect damage increases life points instead."

"Why would you tell me? If you hadn't said anything, you'd have just gotten free life points."

"It makes the duel more fun."

"Whatever you say," Mukuro laughed to himself. "I switch Skull Flame to defense and end my turn."

Turn 6

"Good. Draw!"

Zack: 2000 SPC: 3 Mukuro: 2500 SPC: 2

"I summon Rose, Warrior of Revenge!" Zack summoned a woman with bright red hair wearing only black and a sword (1600 ATK). "Now Prime Material Dragon attacks Skull Flame again!" The golden dragon pounced and crushed Mukuro's monster. "Rose, attack him directly!" The woman ran over and slashed at the D-Wheel, dropping Mukuro to 900 life points and his Speed Counters to one. "Rose's effect: when she inflicts battle damage, she deals another 300!" Rose did a back-flip kick before returning to Zack's side. "Turn end."

Turn 7

"Let's see what I can do, draw!"

Zack: 2000 SPC: 4 Mukuro: 600 SPC: 2

"Now this is a perfect draw!" Mukuro said rejoicing. "By removing Skull Flame in my graveyard from play, I summon Supersonic Skull Flame!" This time, a monster appeared that looked like Skull Flame as a centaur (2600 ATK). "And since that was a special summon, I also summon Burning Skull Head!" The flaming skull reappeared on Mukuro's field. "I activate its second effect! By removing it from play, I can put my removed Skull Flame back into the graveyard." The skull disappeared and an image of Skull Flame was visible for a moment. "Now Supersonic Skull Flame, attack Prime Material Dragon!"

"I activate my Interdimensional Matter Transporter! I can remove Prime Material Dragon from play until the end of the turn." After the card flipped up, the dragon vanished.

"In that case, I attack your warrior instead!" The monster galloped over to its new target and brought down a flaming hoof down on her, causing her to explode into pixels. Zack's life points dropped to 1000. "Now I activate Supersonic Skull Flame's effect. It deals 400 damage for each Burning Skull Head in my graveyard." The monster shot a small flame at Zack, dropping his life points further. "Turn end."

"My Prime Material Dragon returns now." The dragon reappeared as its duelist stated.

Turn 8

"Now I draw!"

Zack: 600 SPC: 4 Mukuro: 600 SPC: 3

"I summon my Magna Drago tuner monster!" Zack declared as a small red dragon appeared. "Now I tune my level six Prime Material Dragon to my level two Magna Drago." Magna Drago turned into two green rings which surrounded the golden dragon, reducing it to its wireframe and six stars. "Syncro Summon, Colossal Fighter!" In a flash of light, a giant white warrior stood in place of the two dragons (2800 ATK). "Colossal Fighter gains 100 ATK for every warrior in the graveyard. Chaos End Master and Rose make two!" The syncro monster slammed its fists together as it gained more ATK points (3000 ATK). "Now go! Attack Supersonic Skull Flame!" The giant brought its fist down on the zombie without having to move from where it was. As the explosion cleared however, Mukuro just smiled.

"When Supersonic Skull Flame is sent from the field to the graveyard, it summons Skull Flame back to the field!" The original Skull Flame came out of the ground, symbolizing its resurrection (2600 ATK).

"But that means-"

"That's right! I win on my turn! It was a good duel, it really let me test the deck that'll let me win my title back!"

Zack looked at his hand and sighed. "I guess this is as well as I could do. I set one face-down and end my turn."

Turn 9

"Alright, now I add Burning Skull Head to my hand from the graveyard."

Zack: 600 SPC: 5 Mukuro: 200 SPC: 4

"Game over. I summon Burning Skull Head using Skull Flame's effect!" A flaming skull once again appeared on the field. "Now it deals 1000 points of damage!"

"I activate my trap, Destruction Ring! By destroying one monster on my field, both players receive 1000 points of damage!" A ring with a bomb on it formed on one of Colossal Fighter's fingers.

"Then, you mean-"

"It's a tie." The giant exploded and the blast hit both players, dropping their life points to zero. Both D-Wheels let out the smoke signaling a loss. The air breaks went on and both came to a stop. As both duelists dismounted their rides, Mukuro took his helmet off to reveal his flaming orange hair.

"Now that was a riding duel! Don't expect it to go the same way at the fortune cup though," he said, extending his hand. Zack took it and smiled competitively. "Yeah, I'll see you there."

* * *

It was late when Zack returned to the Security building. _'Man that was fun! And I was one of the people who thought motorcycles would ruin the show.'_As he walked the hallways to his room, he passed Jeager who was reviewing some papers on a clipboard. "Hey elf-clown," he said throwing him the card he used to pay all his expenses that day.

Said jester looked up in time to catch the card with a puzzled look. "This is…?"

"Thanks for the new duel-disk and D-Wheel." With that, Zack left the confused man gaping in the hall.

* * *

As I said last chapter, thanks for reading this far. I know that I'm posting this way later than I originally said, but I got distracted and the fact that I'm sharing this computer with the rest of my family doesn't help.

Anyhow, the story behind Zack's mark is revealed! I had him tie with Mukuro to make it seem less Gary Stu as Mukuro _is_ a pro-duelist. On top of that, Zack won't even duel next chapter, which is the start of the Fortune Cup.

So as all authors say, please review!

PS. I do not in anyway approve of stealing/pickpocketing/etc. It was only a plot device to have Zack using not lame gear. Plus I don't like the elf.


End file.
